Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška

As a central regional gallery institution is Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts, Slovenj Gradec from the very beginning of its existence the platform successfully realizing its mission of preparing variegated program covering contemporary art of international, national and regional origin. It started in 1957 with ideas of local academic circles with painter and pedagogue Karel Pečko on its forefront, who conceived an ambitious programme, and invited fine arts critics to co-operate as selectors, which in the sixties was by no means established practice in Slovene galleries. Several famous stars of the fifties, sixties and seventies like Henry Moore, Ossip Zadkine, Daniel Buren and Victor Vassarely were exhibiting there. Some works of them and other artists are now building the part of the gallery collection with more than 1000 artworks.

Ambitions of bringing Slovenj Gradec, small town on the fringe of Slovenia with not more than approximately 8.300 inhabitants, to the international map of art and by associating international artist with Slovenian continued effectively under the guidance of Milena Zlatar, paying much attention on the engaged art. Since 2008 Marko Košan overtook the directing of the gallery, paying more attention to regional artists, especially with the programme of in spring 2009 opened Small Gallery of Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts, but the vision of the gallery located in the pure centre of the historic town core is still the same.

History

The institution was established on ideas and endeavours similar to Arnold Bode idea of establishing Documenta in Kassel in 1955, so to create fine arts centre out of a rural town like Slovenj Gradec. First exhibition was in Slovenj Gradec lounched allready in 1954 and entitled Swedisch kitchen. Officialy was the gallery established in 1957 having its own exhibition space in old town hall on Glavni trg. In the year 1966 was built the edifice, where the gallery operates and exhibits till nowdays. In the same year the gallery stared with the international programme establishing the gallery politic that soon came under the sponsorship of the United Nations and support international programme in 1966, 1975, 1979, 1985 and 1991.

"Slovenia was part of the then Socialist Yugoslavia, and only a skillful organiser could successfully have convinced the ruling elite in the town that the fine arts were precisely what was needed to elevate the town's reputation. The decision to invite the United Nations to take honorary patronage over the exhibitions proved to be appropriate, and it guaranteed the participation of renowned artists," wrote Milena Zlatar abote those pioneering perod of the gallery on the gallery web page and continuing that "participation in exhibitions in a socialist country represented a kind of challenge to some artists. One way or another, the exhibitions have opened Slovenj Gradec up to the world, and domestic fine art production has taken its place side by side with that from abroad." In the gallery there was exhibiting several famous stars of fifties and sixties, including Henry Moore, Ossip Zadkine, Victor Vassarely, Johny Friedlaender, etc.

International exhibitions and events

The most repercussive international exhibitions and events of the gallery were:

1975: Engaged Figuration - The French artist Daniel Buren was invited to Slovenj Gradec and he chose a conceptual artistic engagement, as he placed his blue-white flag among other flags hanging in front of the gallery and announcing the participation of artists from different countries. Beside numerous artists who exhibited more "classical" works in the gallery, there were still other conceptualists, like Pino Poggi with his AU Arte Utile Manifesto, which the artist claimed to be a graphic work with the functions of film and newspaper, and which entices the viewer to engage in constructive thinking. Or Braco Dimitrijević, an artist born in Sarajevo who only later acquired international acclaim, also participated at the exhibition with two documentary photographs.

1979: International fine art exhibition - The exhibition exposed the problems of the socialisation of art and psycho-formation, it dealt with the peripheral areas of fine art, and touched upon the alternatives in contemporary architecture in the seventies. Among the exhibitors was the Italian artist Ico Parisi, exhibiting 1976 on Venice Biennial. For Slovenj Gradec he constructed the Wall of Apocalypse in the hall of the Gallery; today this act is seen as a truly prophetic warning on modern communication and the addiction to electronic media.

1985: Ossip Zadkine - The exhibition featuring works by Ossip Zadkine from the artist's collection in Paris took place in 1991. The sculpture Memorial to the Apologist of Cubism - the Poet Guillame Apollinaire (1937, bronze), which Zadkine presented as a gift to Slovenj Gradec at the first international fine art exhibition in 1966, was transferred from Paris - with the permission of the foundation - as late as 1990, and in the same year it took its place in the atrium of the gallery. Zadkine's exhibition meant a logical continuation of the exhibitions which emphasised traditional fine art practice, and one of the most important among them was certainly the exhibition of sculptures and graphic works by Henry Moore in 1979.

1997: The Artist and an Urban Environment - The ever topical theme indicated the problems of contemporary society, most eloquently with the expressive potential of photography and video, very concretely also with the written reflections and installations, and sufficiently sensitively and sometimes even exotically with several "classical" fine art works. Selectors of the show displaying art activity in the non-governmental organisation Cities - Messengers of Peace Milena Babić,Vanesa Cvahte, Mathias Flügge, Fernando Castro Florez, Marko Košan, Jernej Kožar, Želimir Koščević, Pino Poggi and Ron Ramsey invited artists like Peter Hergold, Jože Tisnikar, Sašo Vrabič, Achille Ghidini, Alija Hafizović - Haf, Yukihiro Sumie, Katrin von Maltzahn, Katja Valeska Peschke, Matten Vogel, Concha Garcia, Antonio Murado, Gonzalo Puch, Javier Tudela, Milorad Djokić, Jovan Marinković, Goran Rakić, Milivoje Štulović, Seiichi Furuya, Sarva Sanna, Minna Heikinaho, Alii Maria Savolainen and others.

"We did not primarily have in mind manifestations in specific urban space, known as open-air projects (although these are also included), but rather the incorporation of artists into living surroundings, their reactions here and now, conscious or unconscious." (Milena Zlatar).

2003: Inge Morath - Border.Areas, Last Journey - Exhibition of world famous photographer Inge Morath (1923 Graz - 2002 New York) was curated by Regina Strassegger, Kurt Kaindl and Brigitte Blüml. Very varied photographic work (including jobs with international magazines such as Magnum, Life, Paris Match and Vogue) presented her journey through the borderland between Auistrian southern Styria and Slovenia searching for clues to her own origins and the interaction of history, politics, daily life and culture in the border area.

2004: The Kitchen - From the idea to excession (1954 - 2004) - Fifty years after the very first exhibition Swedish kitchen was shown in Slovenj Gradec the exhibition focusing on contemporary art works and positions inspired by the same phenomenon was prepared. Artists: Viktor Bernik, Mirko Bratuša, Dušan Bučar, Gašper Demšar, Maja Demšar Tasič, Marko Deu, Design center Gorenje, Marjan Dovjak, Dejan Habicht, Ana Hušman, Tomo Jeseničnik, Metka Kavčič Takač, Žiga Kariž, Tanja Lažetić, Zmago Lenardič, Gani Llalloshi, Mohammed Müller, Dušan Otašević, Alja Ovsenik,Tadej Pogačar & P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum, Pino Poggi, Marij Pregelj, Naca Rojnik, Rene Rusjan, Maksim Sedej, Katja Skušek, Nataša Skušek, Mladen Stropnik, Teranga Restaurant, Franco Vecchiet, Sašo Vrabič, Zbirka jedilnega pribora Ferdinanda Leitingerja, Blaž Zupančič.

2005: 2 LIVE - The exhition encompassed the widest possible meanings and existential dilemmas of our existence and being, sixty years since the end of World War II. Primary focus was put on the photography - medium that decisively marked the 20th century and has become one of the leading art genre.The artists of different generations were selected by the group of curators who pointed to the social, ecological, economic and humanitarian dilemmas of man, to picture man as an individual and a social being, whose basic right is to live.

Among 71 artists or artist groups there were exibiting: Hynek Alt and Aleksandra vajd, Brass ART, Erika Bialowons,Barbara Caveng, Božidar Dolenc, Zijah Gafić, Kaspars Goba, Tomaž Gregorič,Dejan Habicht, Arne Hodalič, Jasna Hribernik, Tomo Jeseničnik Manca, Stojan Kerbler, Tanja Lažetić, Zmago Lenardič, Martin Liebscher, Brigitte Maria Mayer, Steve McCurry, Boris Mikheilow, Dragiša Modrinjak, Inge Morath, Borut Peterlin, Anneké Pettican, Veno Pilon, Irina Ruppert, Klavdij Sluban, Hermann Stamm, Jože Suhadolnik, Annelies Štrba, Ingo Taubhorn, Amos Taylor, Eric van Hove, Sašo Vrabič, Huiqin Wang, Veronika Zapletalova, Tobias Zielony, Joco Žnidaršič.

2007: Thread - The international exhibition Thread with 33 domestic and foreign artists, curated by Maja Škerbot, marked the 50th Anniversary of the Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts. It put on a pedestal a material that had for centuries remained in the domain of clothing culture and the applied arts and showed how in recent years, it has entered into the world of the visual arts in truly sovereign style and on a surprisingly massive scale.The connection between clothing culture, applied art, domestic equipment and contemporary art production is intense, and it is the subject of illumination in the exhibition Thread. The selected artists were: Élodie Antoine, Rosalía Banet, Wiebke Bartsch, Barbara Bernsteiner, Tania Candiani, Barbara Caveng, Lada Cerar in Sašo Sedlaček, Andrejka Čufer, Jochen Flinzer, Claus Föttinger, Zuzanna Janin, Metka Kavčič, Justyna Koeke, Michael Kos, Eduard Lesjak, Martin Löffke, Polona Maher, Isa Melsheimer, Janet Morton, Alen Ožbolt, Sandrine Pelletier, Marija Mojca Pungerčar, Iris Schieferstein, Chiharu Shiota, Kei Takemura, André Tempel, Anu Tuominen, Julia van Koolwijk, Marjolijn van der Meij, Petra Varl, Patricia Waller and Silke Wawro.

2008: Necessary Discourse on Hysteria - The exhibition curated by Jernej Kožar and Rado Poggi, revived museums and faced up to the responsibility of aesthetical education. Artists of two generations visualised, intervened and interacted together with theoreticians on the issue of social hysteria. They experienced in the first week the process of an exhibition-installation, and in the remaining three weeks joined performances, discussions, theatre, talks, speeches and video works. Terror, Genetic Engineering, Consumer Society/Isolation, Mass-Information, Power of Media, Profiling, Supershows, Identity, Privacy, Noise Consumption, Sweet-life and Ideology are topics being treated and interpreted by FLATZ, Polona Tratnik, Mukul Deora, Viktor Bernik, Pinopoggi, Metka Zupanič, Vesna Bukovec, Tadej Pogačar, Tanja Vujinović, Jaša, Jože Barši, Timm Ulrichs & Ursula Neugebauer. Esseys were participated by Simon Bryceson, Caroline Kihato, Peter N. Kirstein, Marko Košan, Gorazd Mrevlje, Ursula Sladek and Špela Spanžel.

Collections

Gallery´s collection focuses especially on the regional authors, but includes also several donations, bequests and purchases of international authors. Since its establishing the gallery has been building up a kind of museum of social aesthetics. Parts of collection are on view temporarily, some items also within various exhibitions. Digital archiving of collection is in progress.

There are several segments of the collection with more than 1000 art works:

Permanent collection of Jože Tisnikar alias Hommage to Jože Tisnikar

Painter Jože Tisnikar (1928-1998) matured as an artist while working in a hospital pathology department. 43 paintings and drawings is best defined by the term 'dark modernism' and together with documentary material on the artist's life, reveal Tisnikar's world, examining his iconographic theme of death.

Permanent collection of painter Bogdan Borčič

International collection

The collection includes the works by Ossip Zadkine, Victor Vasarely, Maria Bonomi, Toon Wegner, Gene Chu and Paolo Minoli. It consists of paintings, prints, photographs, original architectural drawings, statues, and documentary material on installations, including performances.

Collection of Slovene art of the 19th and 20th Century

The gallery's collection of works by Slovene artists reflects several decades of the gallery's exhibitions programme, and features the work of Marko Šušteršič, France Mihelič, Riko Debenjak, Marjan Pogačnik, Božidar Jakac, Ive Šubic, Rudolf Kotnik, Kiar Meško, Dragica Čadež, Janez Boljka, Zdenko Huzjan and others. The most significant segment of the collection are works by artists who are natives of Carinthia or are in some way or another connected with the Mislinja, Drava or Mežica Valleys, namely Franjo Golob, Karel Pečko, Bogdan Borčić, Lojze Logar, Gustav Gnamuš, Rade Nikolić, Anton Dolenc, Vida Slivniker, Harald Draušbaher, Andrej Grošelj, Štefan Marflak, Miran Prodnik, Naca Rojnik, Peter Hergold and Sašo Vrabič.

The collection also presents the heritage from the 19th century onwards as well as the most recent art trends. A special place is occupied by the works of Franc Berneker (1874-1932), the first modern Slovene sculptor and fellow traveller of the impressionist painters, and by the works by painter Oskar Pistor (1865-1928), whose portraits, genre and landscape paintings establish links between the Upper Drava Valley and cosmopolitan Vienna and Munich, and also depict the landscapes of the Tyrol and Carinthia which inspired Pistor. The collection included also some works of former Yugoslav authors like: Krsto Hegedušić, Vlado Jakelić, Pedja Milosavljević, Miljenko Bosanac, Zorislav Drempetić, Nikola Koydl, Robert Tanay, Seid Hasanefendić, Zvonko Lončarić, Branislav Dinić, Nikola Gvozdenović, Mića Popović, and others.

Collection of social aestetics of Pino Poggi

Works by Italian artist Pino Poggi (donated in 1998) provide the basis for a developing International Museum of Social Aesthetics.

Collection of Franc Tretjak alias African Collection

Dr. Franc Tretjak spent nearly 20 years in Africa as an economic consultant of the United Nations and donated to Slovenj Gradec his African collection consisting of domestic artefacts (vessels, ladles, calebashes, fans, baskets, musical instruments, tools, arms, etc) and items which have an ethnological value (cult objects including masks and statuettes, fetishes and amulets, objects of white and black magic, Nomoli (Nomori) statues and rare 'antiques' from the African continent).

Open-air collection

The open-air gallery on the edge of Štibuh Park is also arranged as a venue for cultural events. In the 1970s its cultural function was further enhanced with the installation of sculptures by selected artists (Ivan Meštrović, Drago Tršar, Josip Diminić, Jordan Grabuloski, Ivan Sabolić, Ratko Vulanović, Ana Bešlić, etc) under the slogan 'For Peace'.

Small Gallery for artists of the Koroška region

As a politik of new director Marko Košan, to be more attentive on regional artists, is since 2009 in the groundfloor of the gallery building opened a new room.

In 2009 there was on the view the project Libri of italian sculpturer and politicaly engaged conceptualist Pino Poggi, being tightly connected with Slovenj Gradec. In November 2009 the exhibition programme continued with the newest setting of the project Pri zlatem stegnu by authors Nataša and Katja Skušek, Mladen Stropnik.

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